Broken Halo
by SaezuruKeisei
Summary: Loki is gone and Thor is no longer the same as he was, now he has the chance to get him back with the help of the Avengers, but not everything goes as planned when travel arrangements go wrong and Thor and Loki are stuck. please Review :
1. Chapter 1

* Disclaimer i own none of it except the imagination to twist the chara's into my own fantastical poses. i make no money off this sad to say*

Chapter One – In Mourning

Thor could not touch the food at the feast; his hunger was not to be satisfied for yet another night. Since Loki had vanished so suddenly and so violently from his life he had felt no joy in eating, he barely managed to remember to drink and sleep had been haunted by the look in his brother's eyes as he had let his slim pale fingers slide from the shaft of his spear.

Many was the night that Thor had woken crying out his brother's name and reaching into the darkness of his chambers, fingers blindly seeking the pale hand in his nightmares. Since sleep had become so broken and filled with sorrow, the God had taken to wandering around his home during the hours of sleep. More than once his had found himself in Loki's rooms.

Excusing himself quietly from the table, he wondered in that same direction now. He reached the double doors within what seemed like seconds and pushed them open stepping inside and pushing the door closed behind him. His eyes travelled over the cavernous room one, whole wall from ceiling to floor covered in books, a large bed with rich green coverings in velvet, a wardrobe stood slightly ajar to the left.

The room was Loki all over, simple and stylish, filled with knowledge and learning. Thor had never been one for books and libraries, preferring instead to train his body and to some extent his ego. It hadn't been until his trip to earth that he had discovered how much of a selfish pig he had been. Loki had been stronger than he and any of the other Warriors had taken him for, too busy looking at his brain to see his physical strength.

Walking over to the bed Thor sat down running his hands over the crushed velvet. He didn't even notice the door open as Frigga slipped in behind him. It was only when the bed dipped to his left that he raised his blonde head to see the look of quiet sadness on his mother's face. She reached out and cupped her eldest son's face in one hand and brushed her thumb over a slightly damp cheek.

"You cannot continue like this Thor…" She said gently looking into his eyes, "You will not last with this wound in your heart. You must allow yourself to heal…I cannot lose both of my children to hidden pain."

Thor closed his eyes and took her hand from his face holding it in his gently squeezing it. "I will not leave you Mother, but how can I forgive myself for what I have done to my Brother, I deserve to feel this way."

Frigga closed her eyes trying to block out the sight of her son's pain filled face, she couldn't lose Thor along with Loki and she intended to sort this out once and for all. She opened her eyes and looked her son straight in the eye.

"What happened with your brother was not your fault. You loved him as we all did; your father still has eyes looking for him as far as we can. Loki was troubled in his mind and in his heart because he didn't talk to us or tell us what was happening to him. Nothing you could have done would have saved him, because he did nothing to help save himself."

Thor felt tears unbidden falling slowly down his cheeks matching the salty droplets falling from his Mother's eyes before him. Pulling her into his arms he held his Mother as she wept for the son she lost. It was this act more than the speech she had just given that made Thor realise that he needed to snap out of the depression creeping into his heart. He needed to be strong even if it was just for the health and happiness of his mother.

~X~

Slowly but surely Thor started to get back to his old self. He started eating again making sure he had his fill at the table when the feasting started. Frigga watched her son regain the weight he had been slowly dropping since Loki had vanished.

He started to train again with his friends and from reports she was receiving he was smiling and laughing a lot more. She was glad to know that she was slowly getting her eldest son back, the danger of him slipping into something more dangerous than mourning.

It was then that the news arrived, Himedal sent a guard to the King and Queen, Thor, Sif and the Warriors three were also present as the man lowered himself to one knee head bowed and uttered the words that none of them had dared thought they would ever hear again.

"Loki has been seen My King."

Odin stood from his thrown eye blazing with a mixture of sorrow and other emotions one could hardly guess at. But none of that came through in his strong and unwavering voice. "Where is he? Where is my son?"

"Earth my King. He is causing havoc and many people have already been affected. The humans have assembled a team to combat him."

"Loki should be brought home by one of us. He belongs here with his family, I cannot allow the humans to fight him and it is a fight they cannot hope to win." Thor said turning to his father and mother with pleading eyes.

Odin nodded once. "Very well. Thor ready yourself, you are going to retrieve your brother."

~X~

Thor could barely contain what he felt inside at the idea of seeing Loki again. He wanted so much just to see him again, to know he was completely safe, alive and breathing, moving. He could take nothing with him only the Hammer but he walked around his brother's room taking in the neat space and imagining what it would be like to see it lived in once more.

Frigga opened the door to see her son once again pacing up and down, waiting by the door she watched him move around and finally notice her presence. He walked up to her and hugged her hard in his joy. She held him back with a small smile.

"Thor listen to me…my son." She held his face in both hands and looked deeply into his eyes, "Remember Thor, Loki is no longer the man he was, please be careful."

"I shall be Mother. Loki is coming home!" Thor said with force as he walked past her and out of the room to go head to head with his brother.


	2. Chapter 2

*Disclaimer: I own only my own twisted imagination and use it to play with the toys Marvel has developed. If they were mine and I was making money from this stuff the world would be doomed!*

Chapter Two- Leave out all the rest

Loki and Thor crashed to the ground, bright crackling energy following them striking the rock face just below them, sending rocks crashing to the ground far below. The emotion was as charged as the electricity crashing around them.

"Hello Brother." Loki's grin was huge and edged with manic delight as he looked up at his muscular blond brother bearing down on him with such ferocity.

Thor watched his brother's eyes and it hurt to see the madness in them, swimming in the bright blue eyes giving them an unhealthy sheen. He wanted to reach out and shake him, shake the madness from them; he couldn't stand to see it there in the eyes of the man he loved most in the world.

"Loki…" he could hardly believe Loki was alive, he looked different, not just his eyes and the new hated addition to them but his hair was longer now down to his shoulders, he looked so handsome and yet the of his hysteria marred everything about him. His grin was too wide and his stance was so tense he could feel the muscles shaking in his grip.

"How nice to see you again. How's the family?" Loki asked trying hard to keep the laughter from his voice.

"Distraught! We grieved for you! We thought…we thought you were…I thought I had lost you." Thor could feel his voice breaking and Loki obviously didn't pick up on it because he laughed hard his grin widening eyes shining with malice now as well as madness.

"You grieved for me? Did you cry and scream? Did The All-Father continue to call me his son after I fell into the void?" The manic laughter that rang through the empty trees was bone chilling "I find that very hard to believe."

Thor felt anger bubbling up inside his chest at the mockery. How could Loki find it so hard to believe that they had not grieved for him? Did he truly think so little of his family as to believe the folly coming from his mouth?

"Father was inconsolable, I held our Mother as she wept for you! How can you think you are not loved? You are my brother… my heart was lost without you by my side." Thor shook the slight form he was holding onto.

"I'm not your brother. I'm the spawn of the creatures you all wanted to kill, the bi-product of a plan your Father can now never bring to fruition! I was never a prince of Asgard, I was just another relic locked up for the safety of you and your people!" Loki pushed away from Thor for a thin man he had amazing strength and moved himself to the edge of the parapet they were standing on. "I have seen the power of the Teserakt…and when I wield it-"

"Who showed you this power?" Thor interrupted him "Who controls the would-be King?" she grabbed at Loki's arms again shaking him slightly.

Loki tor from his brother's grip once more with a maddened exclamation on his lips. "I am a King!"

"Not here!" Thor yelled in Loki's face. "You give up the Teserakt! You give up this poisonous dream!" pausing he shook Loki very gently making sure his next word where clear for his brother to hear. "…you come home."

A mocking smile greeted his emotional outburst as Loki looked him in the eye and answered with a half laugh. "I don't have it," Thor raised his Hammer in frustration as Loki continued "You need the power of the cube to bring me home, but I've sent it off I know not where."

Thor shook his head and lashed out in his anger at the nearest rock sending it crashing down the slope to joint all the other scree littering the mountainside, the noise ringing in the still silence of the night. "You listen well Brother." It was then that a man in a metal suite decided to drop in for a chat, bashing the God off the parapet and onto the leafy damp ground far below.

Blinking Loki smiled and continued talking to the space his brother had formally been occupying. "I'm listening…"

~X~

Loki sat watching his brother do battle with one of the annoying mortals who had thought himself cleaver enough to catch the mighty Loki. He couldn't help the smile that crept along his face as the two exchanged blows in the wooded glade far below his perch. The amount of collateral damage being delt to the trees was enormous.

He thought back on what Thor had told him about the 'Family' he had left back in Asgard. He didn't think much to the arguments put forward to him. Odin had taken him to ease his own guilt at the amount of death he and his men had caused to the Frost Giants, he had planned on using Loki to broker a peace between the two races, Fathers do not use their sons as a chess master uses a pawn.

In Asgard he had never been respected, even when he was the rightful heir to the thrown and had taken his claim he has gained no respect from any of his so called subjects. All had betrayed him, all had shown how much they disrespected him, but here on this tiny planet he would have his revenge.

The people of this world would show him respect, they would beg and cower and look upon him as the god he should have been. After all it was better to be feared than loved was it not? He would beat out the pathetic resistance the mortals had formed. Even with his brother here trying to stop him he would not be proved weak a second time.

No…he would crush he world his beloved brother cherished so much under the heel of his boot and watch the man break as he himself had broken so many times before when he had though himself part of a family.

~X~

Loki had been locked away in a large tank inside the hellicarrier. Thor had wanted more time to talk with his wayward brother but he had agreed to go with the humans rules as this was after all their planet and not his. He had discovered the full extent of what Loki had been up to while he had been here. Mass destruction of a S.H.E.I.L.D base, the mind manipulation of good people including an old friend of his, something which pained him greatly but not as much as the needless violence and death.

"The man's a classic psychopath. We tanked him and I vote the creepy little bugger stays in there until we find something to put him down for good. On that notion I vote for dropping a nuke of him form a great distance. I'll even provide the popcorn." Tony Stare said with his feet up on the meeting table in the control room watching Loki just sitting in the Hulk Tank on the video loop.

Thor could not say that he like the man a great deal. For one thing he was impulsive and annoying to listen to and if he ever did take anything serious he never seemed to show it. This little chat had broken out the moment Nick Fury had walked through the sliding doors on his way down to talk to the prisoner.

"I'm inclined to agree with you." Natasha said from her stance leaning against one of the railings nearby her eyes trained on the screen with calculated hatred. Thor couldn't blame her for her vote, from what he had gathered Loki's little mind games had taken a dear friend from her and forced him to do awful things in the name of his brother's poisonous dreams.

The rest of the room was quiet, keeping their opinions if they had any to themselves. Steve Rodgers seemed disturbed at what had transpired but he just watched the screen waiting for Fury to arrive and start the interrogation.

Stark started to make another joke or jibe about his brother and Thor felt his temper snap very gently. He turned patiently to the man and gave him a look of pure rage hidden behind eyes as calm as the eye of a raging storm.

"Keep your opinions to yourself. My brother will be returning to Asgard with me and there he has be punished for what he has done here. You will not harm him mortal, unless you wish to get through me." His voice as steady and unchanging as his stare.

Stark was about to give a retort when the Captain spoke up from his chair eyes never leaving the screen in meeting room. "Stow it you two. Looks like Nick is having his little chat."

All eyes reluctantly turned to the screens as they heard Loki's amused and mocking voice through the coms. "It's an impressive cage, not built, I think…for me."

~X~

As Loki sat in his clear prison he couldn't help but smile to himself at how easy the Mortals where to play against each other. He knew that Thor was helping them, trying to make them feel safe and relaxed and tell them that he would soon be taking his wayward brother back to Asgard.

Back on that god forsaken rock when the blonde brute had been spouting his senseless emotions at him Loki had read the meanings behind why he was telling Loki all those obvious lies about him being missed.

Loki saw the truth behind Thor's emotions. He felt guilty for what had happed to his home and to the pointless dust bowl of a town Loki had destroyed containing the pitiful mortals he had come to call friends during his exile. He felt guilty and he wanted forgiveness. Loki was not the person to plead to for forgiveness. What Thor had been asking him was impossible. Loki was not the sort of man to look at the good points of their life together and leave out all the rest.

He caught a movement in front of him and looked up to see a beautiful red head standing before him her eyes practically boring into his skull. She stood in the same place the infuriated Nick Fury had been standing not that long before. He smiled a crooked smile eyes meeting hers.

"Well now…what have we here…?"


	3. Chapter 3

*Disclaimer: I own only my own twisted imagination and use it to play with the toys Marvel has developed. If they were mine and I was making money from this stuff the world would be doomed!*

Chapter three – Not quite homeward bound.

The Avengers stood in a semi-circle eyes trained on Thor as he held his transportation device in one hand and Loki's upper arm in a vice like grip in the other. Nobody could say they were unhappy too see the God of Mischief cuffed and masked and ready to depart from their world forever.

Thor Raised the device his father had given him high above his head and he activated it with one last look at his friends. There was a large and impressive flash of bright Blue-white light all had to close or shield their eyes to stop them from burning out. As the light faded the Avengers looked at the spot where the two gods had been standing to discover…that they hadn't.

Thor lowered the transporter and shook it and tried it again only for it to start sparking and he had to drop it as it almost exploded in the God's hand. It landed by Tony's feet as it started shooting sparks causing the Billionaire to jump into Steve's arms like a little girl with an undignified squeak, the Captain catching him on impulse.

"Well aren't you a big strong boy." Tony said wrapping his arms round Steve's neck in a mockingly sultry voice. The Captain rolled his eyes and simply dropped the man who raised himself to his feet a moment later rubbing what would no doubt be a bruised backside by the morning. "I'm too good for you anyway." He sulked

Keeping away from the now occasionally sparking contraption on the Thor looked last towards his friends. He didn't know what was wrong, he couldn't get Loki or himself back to Asgard without the teleport devise and there was no way to communicate their strife to the Gods above.

"What happened? The Tesseract should have had the power to take us home." He said looking to Banner and Stark who were peering at the contraption with care.

"Should have had more than that, it's unlimited bloody power, the word unlimited being the focal of my point." Tony said jumping back again when it made a particularly violent bag with a high shower of sparks like a firework. "Maybe the transport wasn't strong enough to support the power it put out."

Loki was almost bent double. If his mask had allowed it the Avengers guessed that insane laughter of his would be back cackling through the air. All eyes turned on him as they seemed to have reached the same thought at the same time. Thor walked over to his brother a roughly removed the mask from his face.

"What did you do to the Tesseract?" He demanded pointing at the broken teleportation device now no longer spitting sparks on the ground.

"Honestly _brother _I have no idea what you are talking about. Only your good Doctor Selvig handled the thing. Whatever he has done to it was not my doing as I have no understanding of how to manipulate something like that. But I will say that it was very amusing to watch all your faces!" his laughter rang out anew, right up until Steve smacked him just right on the back of the head knocking him into the darkness of unconsciousness.

~X~

"So…is now the wrong time to bring up the idea of Nuclear bombs being dropped on the slimy git?" Tony had his feet up on the desk of the meeting table again as the other took their normal seats, most of them looking much less than impressed at what had transpired.

"Tony, now is not the time for jokes." Bruce chided him softly as he watch the sleeping form of Loki back in a cage meant for the Hulk. Apparently they had two aboard the hellicarrier and seeing as one had already been destroyed by a long drop and a sudden stop, it was the only place they could think to use as a holding cell.

"Who said anything about me joking?" He said in the most serious voice yet arms folded over his broad chest, hiding the arc reactors light that shone through his maroon shirt.

"I don't like this guy as much as you lot but unfortunately Thor has made his position on this very clear. Loki will face charges back in Asgard as one of their own, till then he's a prisoner of war because to be quite honest I ain't got time to watch you lot going toe to toe with a God." Nick was standing at the main control panel "And I ain't going against him neither."

Thor stood with his arms crossed watching for anyone to start throwing insults and idea's his way but nobody did, it seemed everyone was aware of the brotherly connection between the two men all be it a one sided one. He bowed his head and asked softly about the Tesseract.

"Doctor Selvig had been checking it out, whatever he did while Loki was playing the puppet master with his brain this time he can't understand. However there is a great possibility it has something to do with that damn spear Loki was so fond of. Till we figure it out I'm afraid it looks like you and your emotional megalomaniac are stuck here." Nick shook his head closing his one good eye.

~X~

Loki woke to find himself back behind glass, looking at the release control panel on the other side. Somewhere in the back of his groggy mind he was sure he remembered ejecting this pod out of the ship with his brother trapped inside it. When his eyes refocused on the other side of the glass Director Nick Fury was watching him.

"I feel we have been at this juncture once before…" Loki said rubbing his head and standing to his fullest height swaying a little as he regained his sense of balance. He would be damned if he was going to look like he was cowering before the man.

"I can understand your…lack of enthusiasm for returning home with your brother." Nick fixed him with a stare that would have penetrated steel given the right amount of time. "Last time we were in this position I told you that you might not wish to have made me so desperate, now I'm here to tell you that 'might' don't come into the equation anymore. If you escape that cell and I'm going to make you wish you had taken your chance to escape my wrath and the anger of the other people you so unwisely pissed off on his ship!"

Loki looked back with bored eyes. He wasn't the least bit worried about the other mortals on his ship, all he cared about was the Hulk and that was because he was still nursing some severe damage from the big green brute and his affiliation for the act of smashing.

"Oh I know you don't find me intimidatin', you're a God. But I should warn you that just because we are not don't mean that we cannot make your pathetic cry baby ass as sorry as humanly possible that you killed a good man and a friend of mine. You better pray to whatever it is you people do pray to…that you never get out of that cell."

Nick turned on his heel and walked toward the door at the side of the room, with a smirk playing on his lip Loki continued to look at the point nick had been standing in a few moments before. His mocking voice carried out of the Director just as the doors slid closed behind him.

"Could I have that magazine this time?"


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter four – To humiliate a God

It was early when Loki was rudely awakened by a fog horn in the ear. He jumped almost a foot in the air and landed heavily on the floor with a grunt. Looking up still dazed he saw a none descript S.H.E.I.L.D agent holding a bowl.

Sitting up Loki sneered at the man as he approached the glass. There was a two way hatch built in to one side of the cell, the agent opened it up and placed the bowl inside, closing the hatch back up he pressed the button on the outside and the sheet of glass in front of the bowl slid up.

Loki reached in and curled his delicate fingers around the warm crockery and peered into the white stodgy slop it contained with an air of distain, his lip curling into a look of disgust. Looking back in the hatch he noticed the distinct lack of cutlery with which he was supposed to use to consume this swill.

The agent just gave him a cruel smile from the other side of the glass walls of his cell and waited patiently for Loki to say something to him. Taking the bait Loki lifted one elegant black eyebrow and asked mockingly.

"And how and I supposed to eat this slop?"

"With your hands, like an animal, stick your face in it and lick it clean like a dog, personally I couldn't care less, you're a monster. We can't kill you and I'm sure as hell we can't do anything to hurt you." He smiled that cheery smile again tinted with just a little cruelty. "But I can sure as hell humiliate you to the best of my ability. Enjoy, Your Highness."

With a mocking bow the agent left a swagger in his steps as Loki silently fumed with rage at his treatment. He controlled his anger only by reminding himself that he would not fall so low as to show the insignificant mortal that he had managed to anger him.

Looking once more at the off white mass wobbling about in the bowl he pushed it back untouched into the hatch. There was no way he was going to lower himself to eating like an animal. Instead he sat down cross legged on the floor and closed his eyes letting his imagination wander and help his body forget the fresh ache of his muscles after his less than comfortable night.

~X~

"Listen big guy if you're going to hang around outside the Lab all day we are never going to get anything done. Now I love having all eyes on me as often as possible but when in working with microscopic, highly fragile and volatile machine parts…I'm not loving the penetrating stare you seem to have going on."

Tony was not a man known for his grasp of the subtle but considering he was talking to a man with a large hammer and a currently frustrated disposition he thought it was time to have a go at it. Thor had not moved since he and Bruce had started to try and repair the teleport system about three hours ago, and Bruce couldn't really concentrate when in the corner of his eyes he could see a large blonde head craning to try and see what was going on.

Thor sighed; he didn't really know what to do with himself. Since Loki was locked up in the holding cell he had wandered round the ship turned away from all of his friends due to their regular activities on the Hellicarrier.

Hawkeye was away on a new mission as was Natasha; Nick had suggested getting the two as far away from Loki as possible was the better idea than letting them stay so close to a man they both had reasons for wanting dead. Erik Selvig was monitoring the Tesseract to see if he could explain what was wrong with it and didn't have time to talk and now he was being turned away by Bruce and Tony.

"Look big guy I know you're bored, why don't you go down to the gym and hag with the Cap? You both share the muscles in this team perhaps he can distract you for a while. Without distractions up here this will go a lot faster."

Nodding Thor clapped the playboy on the shoulder and headed off to the gym, not noticing the fact that the man had to rub his arm furiously and roll up the sleeve of his shirt checking for bruising. The God finally found the Captain punching bags in the gym about ten minutes later.

Thor was just closing the door behind him when Steve gave a particularly hard smack to the bag and the chains holding it to the ceiling gave way and the bag flew into a wall sand leaking from a split in the side. "Damn it…" Steve hung his head.

"An impressive punch," Thor commented watching Steve turn his lowered head to the side to look at the blonde. "On Asgard you would no doubt give some of our best a run for their money."

"Thanks, what brings you down here? I didn't think Gods needed to train to keep their muscles looking like that." The Cap went over to the by now only half full punching bag and lifted it up with a miserable expression on his face. Nick was going to be by no means impressed that he was wrecking his gym.

"We train, but I suppose my real reason for coming here is to district myself from my boredom, I have nothing to do in this world." Thor pulled himself onto the side of the boxing ring sat leaning back against the ropes.

Dropping the bag Steve walked over and jumped up next to him leaning back with his arms crossed. He had seen that look before, mostly in the mirror. It was the face of a man who felt he didn't belong here, not to mention the fact that he had problem practically written on his forehead.

"You're stressed about your brother." Steve said simply

Thor looked at him for a moment before nodding gently his fingers playing with the wrist strap of his hammer.

"Look I can't pretend to understand what happened between you two, and I really don't like him in I'm completely honest, he's a psychopath-"

"He is not what you think he is!" Thor's outburst was shocking. Normally when his brother was badmouthed he would wait until the speaker was finished before asking politely that their opinions where kept to themselves. "He is just lost."

Steve patted Thor on the shoulder. "How about you tell me what happened between you two, from the beginning."

~X~

Loki was just starting to come round from his mediation when that ballasted fog horn was set off again. He had been stuck in this glass fish bowl for three days now and he was hungry, starving in fact. Each time the same damn agent brought him his food he was left without the cutlery with which to eat it.

He refused to bow down to the man's infuriating mockery about eating like an animal and each time food was brought he had left it in the hatch for when they came to collect it. He hadn't eaten for three days in total so far and he had slept very little also. He was being kept under surveillance and the damned horn would be set off at random intervals during the day, usually when he was tired and about to fall asleep again.

Looking a lot more dishevelled than he would normally allow, he tidied himself up as much as he could. When he turned round he saw Thor standing at the glass watching him with some unreadable emotion in his eyes. Loki just looked back through tired and black rimmed eyes with his lack of sleep.

"You look terrible Brother." Thor looked him up and down; he had never seen Loki look so out of place. He walked over to the serving hatch and put something inside locking it back up he pressed the release and the screen on the inside rose.

Loki looked at the small book inside and reached out picking it up. The title was printed inside on the first page, 'The Count of Monte Christo'. Loki closed it again and looked back at his bother. Neither said a word, Loki turned on his heel and walked to the other end of the cell, opening the book he let his eyes scan the page and read to himself in silence. The next time he looked up Thor was gone.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five-Edmund Dantès

Tony turned over in bed aboard the Hellicarrier. He had noticed that there was some sort of annoying horn that had been sounding every now and then in the night. It was becoming rather irritating and he was going to get to the bottom of it.

Slipping out of bed he got dressed in a shirt and a rough pair of jeans, not bothering to button the shirt. Slipping on a pair of shoes and not bothering to tie them up he opened the door and strolled out into the dark corridors of the ship.

Currently the Hellicarrier was on the sea and Tony felt the floor moving gently under his feet as the waves rocked the massive structure, he almost lost his balance a few times, recovering by holding onto the nearest available object until he found his sea legs, not very dignified but it wasn't like there where people around to see him.

It was only after about fifteen minuets of looking around that he realised he had no idea where to start looking for the mysterious horn. He decided to head to the control room, he defiantly remembered there being a fair few horns up there with the volume to reach his room. He was about half way there when he heard it blast out again.

He stopped in his tracks and turned back on himself. That noise was coming from the opposite direction of the control room, it sounded far too quiet to have been coming from a room he was so close to. He travelled along corridor after corridor until he reached the room where Loki was being kept under lock and key.

Peering through the door he saw the God sat at the back of his cage one leg outstretched, the other drawn close to his chest, leaning on that leg was an open book but the man was far from reading it. The hand holding it was lax and the Loki's head was leaning back against the glass, eyes closed.

It disturbed Tony that Loki seemed to look peaceful while he slept, normally he was so animated and jerky, he constantly looked on edge as if he were about to strike like a snake, it was such a stark contrast to the man that Tony saw before him that it took him a moment to remember why he disliked the man so much.

The horn blared again the volume indicated that it was in the same room as the sleeping captive who jumped almost out of his skin the book was sent flying into the air, pages rippling loosing whatever he had been on and landed in a mess some distance away from him. Terrified, glassy eyes looked around before closing, the shocked expression relaxing into the man's normal, cool and cold expression.

Hearing laughter from above him, Tony turned from the room and trotted upstairs to the observation deck just above the cell. Inside he found a couple of agents munching on junk food as they watched the God turn to them with a cold expression before he walked over to dishevelled book, picked it up and delicately smoothing the pages straight with a caring hand.

"Ha! Got him good that time, he's never thrown the book before." One of the agents said grabbing a hand full of potato chips and putting one in his mouth.

"We can do better." His partner said leaning back observing Loki who was now leafing through the pages to find his place.

Tony turned on his heel quietly after he heard that. Now it all made sense, his brain filling in the details it had been unconsciously filing away as he had watched Loki sleep. The black circles around sunken eyes, the general boneless way he had been resting and of course the horn that had been so irritating to a sleeping Tony Stark, his room being only two floors above the room containing the cell.

The agents had been having a little fun with the God of Mischief under their care. Depriving him of sleep by blasting that horn whenever he dosed off or was in a deep sleep, He counted the days that Loki had been on the ship for.

Seven. A whole week and Tony had heard that horn every night he had been in his room, which was five nights so Tony was pretty sure that Loki had been kept awake for most of the week if not all of it. Tony had read something about 10 days without sleep being able to kill a human, but then again Loki wasn't human…and anyway he was a murdering bastard, the S.H.I.E.L.D agents had every right to want revenge fall their fallen comrade.

Getting back in bed after toeing off his shoes and throwing his clothes towards the washing bin, he heard the horn again as he closed his eyes. He wasn't ready for the wave of guilt and the images of Loki's terrified face to flash before his closed eyes. Opening his eyes he stood and pulled the clothes back onto his body and headed for the Control room with a scowl.

~X~

Thor braced himself for another bout as Steve raised his fists and started hammering into the bag he was holding. They had been together ever since Steve had encouraged Thor to tell him about what had gone on between his and his brother.

Now they trained together, Thor held the punch bags for Steve who was a bit worried he would get in trouble for breaking any more gym equipment. If anyone else had tried to hold the pads they would have either broken bones or have been sent flying against the nearest wall. It was a match made in heaven.

They were just finishing up a session when the door opened and Nick walked in closely followed by Tony who looked less than happy to be there. The loud clearing of the Directors throat made Steve pause mid punch and both men looked over to the cause of the sound.

"What's wrong?" Steve asked automatically when he noted the expressions the two men's faces, they didn't look very happy about something and when the Director have that steely expression on his face it always meant some sort of trouble was brewing.

"Thor, we need to talk. Steve you can hear this too." Nick folded his arms over his chest, leather creaking as it stretched against leather. "It's about Loki."

Automatically Thor was tense his muscles tensing as he dropped the Punch bag was walked over to Nick. "What has happened? What is wrong with my brother?"

Nick looked right back at him and explained the situation in a calm voice hoping that it would keep the Thunder God calm as well, not that he held out much hope considering talking about Loki wasn't so much touching a nerve as it was like taking Thor's hammer and beating it.

"It seems I underestimated the professionalism of my staff, they have been having a little fun with your brother behind closed doors, keeping him awake at night and during the day, trying to humiliate him by not giving him cutlery to eat his meals and other things have be ledged against them but there is no proof to sustain them. Mr Stark was the one to discover the goings on and reported then to me."

Thor was shaking violently, fists clenched to the point where bones where cracking and his knuckles had turned white. Steve and Tony where already prepared for the worst possible reaction and stood back, only Nick stood his ground right in front of the God.

"I'm not trying to defend these actions against him but try to remember that these men lost a good friend and watched their planet being destroyed around them, hundreds of them died at your brother's hands. They will be punished."

Tony Looked at Nick and added his own comments, at first he had decided to let it slip and allow them to continue their fun but there was something about what he had seen in Loki's face when that horn had sounded. It had taken a while for him to understand why that fear he has seen had caused him so much guilt.

If you looked past the madness, the megalomania and the anger Loki was just like anyone else. When he looked back he had never really stopped to think about why the God was the way he was, he can't always have been the monster that he had grown into. It was that fear that had cause a human connection to Tony. He was an arrogant ass and he knew that fact well but he did have a heart.

"Might I suggest something degrading? Emptying the toilets perhaps? We are supposed to be the good guy's for Christ sake! Torcher is what the other team do not us!" The anger present in Tony's voice seemed to get through to Thor who looked up at the man with confusion.

"A few days ago you wanted to drop a nuke on him." Steve said putting his hand on Thor's shoulder.

"I was joking, god why can you people never tell when in doing that?" Tony said huffing like a child. "Anyway that cell was never meant to be a cell for holding anybody for this long, I suggest moving him to Stark Tower, and there are plenty of room there for anyone who wants to move in, I don't think I can stand to be around S.H.E.I.L.D agents at the moment."

Nick nodded in agreement and looked at Thor who seemed to have lost a great deal of his anger and was no longer shaking. He bowed his head and thanked tony quietly. "I'm going to go and see my Brother, to tell him the news. You are all welcome to join me, my friends." He set off towards the cell without looking back.

~X~

Loki looked up at a gentle knocking on the glass of his cell. He was normally roused by a horn bellowing down his ear. Thor was standing against the glass with Steve Rodgers and Tony Stark standing on either side of him, Loki looked at the observation room to find the two agents being ordered out by a furious looking Nick Fury who followed them with a sweep of his long black leather coat.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Why didn't I tell you what?" Loki lifted one eyebrow and closed the book over his thumb to keep his page, the title flashing for a moment. Tony noticed it and leaned in to whisper to Steve.

"The Count of Monte Christo? What's he trying to do? Hand his brother an instruction manual?" Steve smiled and looked down to hide his slight laugh as Tony pulled back.

"They were treating you like…like…" Thor struggled to find the words, he needn't have bothered, Loki filled in the gap for him.

"Like an animal."

"Why didn't you tell me so I could stop them? Are you so proud that you would let them kill you without a word?" Thor yelled stepping forward angrily pounding one fist against the glass.

"Pride? Yes precisely I am proud. What exactly _dear_ brother have you left me with? My freedom is forfeit, my respect is none existent! All I have left is my Pride and my hate! My hate for you and I will not allow anyone to rob me of it!" Loki said, never shouting but the exclamation was clear in every word.

Both men where breathing hard to control their anger and Steve took hold of Thor's shoulder pulling him back and away from the glass leading the God away through the door at the side. Tony remained standing in front of the cell looking at Loki who was looking right back at him.

"I know I should despise you. In fact I should want you dead, but I don't. I should be seeing a monster behind the glass between us, but I don't. All I see is a man; you remind me an awful lot of Edmund Dantès, the character in the boom your reading. You're consumed by rage and hate and revenge, so much so that it is all you have left in the world. It's blinded you to what's right in front of your face." Tony turned and walked towards the door, the smooth sound as it slid open was masked by Loki's response.

"And what might that be?"

Tony turned with a smile on his face. "Why don't you finish the book, A smart guy like you should be able to work it out. We're moving you to my place by the way. Goodnight." The door slid shut with a swish and Loki was left to his own devices.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six – Stark Tower.

Loki was back in his cuffs and mask for the move from the hellicarrier, he had woken up to a bowl of fresh fruit salad with a fork and a cup of coffee in a thermos cup every morning since the guards had been changed. Nobody had bothered him while he slept and he sat cross legged against the back of his cage reading with his bowl in one hand book lead open over his knees each morning while he enjoyed his breakfast.

Since the agents that had been torturing him had been taken care of most mornings had been spent like this. It had been one week since they had gone and Loki had to say that his treatment had been greatly improved. Now his new cell at Stark tower was ready and he was on the move.

Thor was sat next to his brother on the Quinjet as it took off from the deck of the carrier. Tony, Steve and Bruce were also inside. They had all decided that it would probably be best if the whole team moved with Loki, not just for security reason but also because Stark Tower's Lower levels that contained the Labs and the rooms where undamaged form the battle and better equipped than the ones found on the hellicarrier.

"So I made few phone calls last night and everything is ready I had our stuff flown over last night and the lovely Pepper will be waiting for us when we land, so eyes front and centre please boys or she'll be placing your jewels in her ever growing display case!" Tony smirked.

"No fear of that Tony." Steve said.

Loki was quiet bored for the rest of the flight. With his hands cuffed he couldn't read his book and he greatly doubted that anyone was likely to hold it up for him. So he closed his eyes and started to try remember the story so far.

Normally he would have finished the book way before now but after all the sleep he had missed and the fact he hadn't been eating he meant that he had spent most of the week before the transfer sleeping and regaining his strength. He could manage a few pages with his meals but would soon find his eye drooping no matter how invigorating the story might be.

A gently shaking on his shoulder startled him, opening his eyes he realised they were no longer moving through the air and that the noise was much reduced. He must have nodded off during the flight because now he was being taken by the elbow and escorted out of the Quinjet.

Outside blinking in the sun he watched as Tony started talking to a very pretty Ginger haired woman wearing a pair of thin framed glasses and carrying a clipboard. He nodded over to Loki a few times and she cast him a very disapproving glance before nodding and retreating into the building and out of the blinding sun.

With Steve on one side and Thor on the other holding onto him tightly they escorted him inside, through a large set of glass double doors. After a trip through the winding corridors and empty room they reached a large room with, a smooth wooden floor and stylish brown leather couches facing the television that took up most of one wall. The artwork that decorated the wall depicted Pots and urns and quite a few pop-art depictions of Ironman.

The wall to the left of the room was made of black glass but as they entered Tony spoke loudly to the computer system.

"JARVIS untint the glass please."

The glass cleared automatically and they were looking through into another room about half the size of the room they were standing in. Decorated in dark greens and silvers, there was a bed in one corner with dark green sheets and silver pillow cases the entirety of one wall was covered in books, mostly fictional stories and biographies a sliver ladder to help reach the top book shelves. There was a black glass door leading into a tinted room which tony explained was the bathroom, the serving hatch like the one in the holding cell was built in next to the door.

Loki Tilted his head, most of him couldn't really think why they had upgraded his room as much as they had. He could see all sorts of entertainment devices inside the room also and he turned his head a fraction to see Thor nod his thinks to the billionaire.

Tony and Steve excused themselves and just after Tony had told JARVIS to open the door. When the clinks and clanks of the mechanisms sliding back and forth and the computer verified voice recognition the door swung open soundlessly and Thor lead his brother inside the room the door closing and locking behind them.

The mask dropped from over Loki's mouth and he breathed in the fresh air of the room instead of the stale air trapped into the mask, next the cuffs where removed and he rubbed his wrists where they had been chafing against his skin.

Everything was done on total silence and there was no eye contact between them. Since Thor ad found out about the agent's treatment of Loki he had not been to see the other God at all and even when he had been fitting the stupid contraptions for the move he hadn't spoken to his younger brother.

Loki watched his brother as he turned his back on him and headed for the door. Even Thor's posture showed he was still angry at his brother's silence. Deep down in the cold recesses of the times Loki had learned to try and ignore he felt he should say something to his older brother, ut by the time he opened his mouth the door was shut and Thor's back vanished through the door out of the TV room as the last lock bolted shut.

Turning to the bed he saw 'The Count of Monte Christo' laying on the bed, a bookmark between the pages. Loki had grown fond of this story and it's hero, Tony had been right that they had much in common, the only difference was that Edmund was right now succeeding in his revenge were as Loki had failed, looking back at the door Thor had just vanished through, he picked up the book and settled cross-legged on the bed and opened it.

~X~

Thor sat on the floor in the corridor with his hands covering his face. It was getting more and more frustrating being stuck on earth. He would have loved the advice of his mother right about now. Loki was so full of hate and bile that he was starting to lose sight of the person Loki had been before he had left the path they had shared for so long.

He had found his brother but this had not quelled his nightmare's. instead of Loki falling through the sky, it was replaced by the echoing and haunting words they had spoken to each other before the fight, listening to how much Loki had built up his pain and anger and frustration. He didn't have the point of view his brother did so he still found it hard to see where the smaller man was coming from, he needed someone who did to explain things to him.

"Oi! Hello? Earth to E.T. are you reading me?" The intruding voice could only belong to one man and sure enough Tony was standing in the doorway with Steve who was shaking his head at the awful alien joke. "Come on, got some stuff to show you."

The next hour was spent taking a tour of the three floors that was to become their home from now until they managed to get to Asgard. Thor's room was all decorated in red and gold with a large bed and closet and a huge wet room for a bathroom. Steve's room was right next door and even had an adjoining door, Steve noticed the large old framed American flag hanging at the head of his bed as and antique and rolled his eyes.

"The kitchen is off the other side of the TV room, but to be honest in too god damn rich to cook so I buy take out every night, mostly Pizza." They walked down a corridor and into a stair well. Reaching the next floor down he pushed open the door and lead them into the gym. "Which I burn off in here."

The whole floor had been completely gutted into one room and it was filled with all the best gym equipment money could buy including a boxing ring wrestling mat and an area he had unwillingly dedicated to palates at Peppers request.

"I had Pepper stock up on punch bags, Nick was always complaining how quick you go threw them." He smirked at Steve and headed for the door across the room taking them down to the lab's below.

~X~  
When they arrived they found Bruce peering at a very thin wire under a microscope. He looked up as the other three wondered in and leaned back against the bench taking off his glasses and tucking them into the top pocket of hi lab coat.

"The good news is that the power source is still putting out a hell of a lot of energy, the bad news is that it's so powerful we can't build anything strong enough to control the power it is putting out. The power it is outputting is more than it was doing originally. Until we can build something to combat that problem you are stuck here."

Thro leaned his hip against another bench and nodded his agreement. "I can only hope that Himedal has seen our plight and been to my father. There may yet be something that asgard can do to get us home."

"Well until we can help you phone home your just going to have to be content with Polishing your guns in the gym with the cap here." Tony said jovially.

"For god sake Tony give it a rest with the Alien jokes, it's so corny. And not to mention that film was awful." Steve said shaking his head.

There was an offended gasp. "You take that back right now Steve Rodgers!"

As everyone made their way out of the lab to order lunch they were treated to a very entertaining argument between Captain America and Ironman on weather E.T. was a good film which was ended by a very annoyed Pepper pots who bashed Tony firmly over the head with her clipboard until he shut up.

~X~

Back in Asgard Frigga was sitting in Loki's room looking around much like Thor had been doing the day she had found him here. She towards the door as it opened to admit her husband, Odin sat by his wife's side holding her delicate hand in his own.

"Himedal and the others are looking to other roots to earth, my love. Our sons are cleaver boys they will find their way back to us soon enough." He said holding her close.

"I know my love. I can't help but hope that while he is there Loki learns the same lessons his brother did." Frigga said running her hand over the green crushed velvet, her thoughts on her youngest son.


	7. Chapter 7

I would like to thank everyone who has followed me so far I am very lucky to have so many people who enjoy my work, I could never have gotten this far without seeing you all following me and giving me such wonderful praise and advice ~ Saezuru Kensei

Chapter Seven – Settling in

Loki shot out of bed at the sound of loud music starting in the room next to him; he sat up still groggy from being woken up in such a sudden manner and looked into the TV room for the source of the noise, but the room was empty.

"_Funk'll getcha, funk'll getcha funk'll getch!"_

Suddenly from the right-hand side of the room Tony Stark wearing nothing but the tightest pair of boxer briefs Loki had ever seen, a pair of black socks and shades, slid through the door that leading to the bedrooms and finally skidded to a stop right in front of Loki's room with a hair brush up to his mouth. As he started too dance along to the music mouthing along to the words.

"_Don't be shock by the tone of my voice._

_Check out my the new weapon, _

_Weapon of choice!"_

After completing a lap of the TV room still apparently oblivious to the now gob smacked Loki staring at him through the glass he danced his way into the kitchen only to reappear about half a minute later carrying a thermos cup.

He stopped as the music hit a strange instrumental and jumped onto the glass coffee table in the middle of the room and did an odd on the spot dance sending the three magazines flying onto the floor in a rustle of pages with a sweep of his foot.

When the lyrics started again he jumped off the table and started to mime into the brush again as he shimmied and gyrated his way back out of the room towards where ever it is he had come from.

"_Walk without rhythm and you won't attract the worm,_

_walk without rhythm and you won't attract the worm,_

_walk without rhythm and you won't attract the worm._

_If you walk without rhythm, heh, you'll never learn."_

As Tony danced further and further away from the TV room the music seemed to follow him until all that could be hurt was the normal sounds of doors banging and people walking round doing their jobs upstairs, somewhere a radio was playing.

"What in the name of Midgard was that…?" Loki said to himself slowly after a few seconds of trying to process exactly what had happened right before his eyes.

"That was Mr Stark's morning routine, Sir, he rarely changes." Came the cool, calm English voice of the computer, JARVIS. Loki looked round and saw a speaker in the corner of his room.

"Do you have to answer all my questions? Or where you just being helpful?" Loki asked not sure where to look.

"If you ask me a question I am obliged to answer it, Sir. However I have amassed a large collection of data from the battles between yourself and Mr Stark. Other than the demands of my programming I shall not entertain you." Loki rolled his eyes and gave a sarcastic sigh.

Rolling out of bed he walked over to the closet pulling it open he found rows of jeans and dark green T-shirts. He pulled his face at them but considering they were the only things available, he grabbed hold of them and took them into the shower room.

It took a few attempts for him to work out how to work the shower but when he did he stood under the hot spray and let the water sooth him. It was amazing the thought that even the machinery seemed to hate him. Why couldn't anyone see that what he was doing? He was taking his rightful place, the place he was destined for.

After drying off he dressed and found that the T-shirts hugged him like a second skin, not much he could do about it however. He come out of the shower room drying his long black hair with a towel only to see Miss Pepper Pots standing in front of the glass door with her clip board in her hand, he also noticed two slices of toast and a cup of tea waiting in the serving hatch.

"Good morning Loki." Pepper said. "It is time for your punishment to begin. Mr Stark said that what was done to you on the Hellicarrier was wrong; torcher is for the likes of you and your kind of people. However you are not here for a free ride. Your surrounds are comfortable because Mr Stark cannot abide unsightly things in his home, but you need to understand that you will be punished."

The glass turned black and Loki continued to hear Peppers voice through it.

"Enjoy the next two hours of seeing what you have done."

~X~

Thor was woken by the sound of knocking on the adjoining door between his and Steve's rooms. Sitting up in bed he called out "Enter!" and Steve pushed open the door in a pair of jeans and a vest holding two cups of coffee in one hand.

Closing the door behind him he handed Thor on of the cups and sat on the bed next to him taking a sip out of his own cup. Thor accepted the hot beverage with a smile and sipped the bitter liquid enjoying the feel of the warmth spreading threw his insides.

"I'm going to head to the gym this morning if you want to come hold a bag for me that is." Steve smirked over the rim of his mug, "Of course that's gonna be after you talk to your brother."

Thor froze up half way through lifting his cup to his lips. He lowered it again slowly and looked at Steve, who didn't even flinch at the less than unimpressed expression he found there. Instead he just smiled and slapped Thor on the shoulder.

"You haven't spoken to him for over a week, you're his brother and the silent treatment isn't going to get either of you anywhere. In fact I'm pretty sure that the lack of communication is what helped start all this in the first place."

Thor just shook his head and looked into the depths of his coffee wishing it held the answers to the questions he wished he could ask he brother. Since his treatment had improved Loki had settled back into the routine of the man Thor had grown up with, quiet and thoughtful but he still held that air of poise and grace, a slight arrogance when he thought he was better than someone.

Yet when Thor had confronted him the manic insanity had relit in his shrunken black rimmed eyes and the he once again resembled a snake spitting it venom on one who just wanted to help, he had spoken of pride and hate and Thor knew that he was clutching those emotions close to his heart to stop the real emotions from poisoning him.

"You are a brave man Thor, I think it's time that you be the better man and show you brother how it's done."

Looking up the God of Thunder clapped Steve on the shoulder and pulled himself out of bed. Pulling on a pair of jeans and random T-shirt he looked back at his friend who simply smiled his encouragement and stood heading back to his own room without another word.

As the door closed Thor took a deep breath and calmed himself as he walked out into the corridor and followed it down to the TV room. When he entered he saw Loki sat cross legged against the headboard of his bed the ever present book resting on his knee, he turned the page with one delicate finger and Thor notice the slight shake there.

Walking up to the glass he stood there with his hands behind his back watching his brother. He knew the way this was likely to pan out. Even as children they had fought and argued and whenever Loki was giving Thor the silent treatment, standing there for long enough just watching him in silence, irritated the dark haired man into speaking to him.

"Was there something you wanted?" Loki finally said, his voice calm and uninterested as he turned another page, eyes scanning the letters and words as they painted pictures across his mind.

"Brother, why do you not wish to come home?" The question was simple enough, but they both new that the answer was infinitely complicated. Loki closed the book very slowly and put it down on the bed. He turned scornful eyes on his brother but made no attempt to get off the bed.

"Perhaps a better question to pose is why do you insist that Asgard is my home? I was born a Frost Giant, son of the king no less. The only reason I was not left to die in that frozen wasteland is because your father though I would make a fine game piece. Asgard was my prison, my gilded cage decadence and light, but a cage none the less. Why would any prisoner wish to return to their cell after tasting the sweetness of freedom?"

"You call this freedom? You are imprisoned in one room! We are trapped on a world with people you tried to kill and enslave who hate you with all their being! They have already tried to exact their revenge on you no matter how petty the act was! You seriously prefer this to a home with loving parents and a brother who wants nothing but to protect you?"

Thor was at a loss to understand his brother's words. Asgard had never been a cage for Loki, he had been free to do as he pleased just as Thor had been, to leave whenever he wanted to have as many friends as he had cared to make. The smile that spread across his brother's face was edged with a glee that repulsed him.

"I am simply becoming the monster I was born to be, I may be hated and they may despise my very existence but it is much preferred to being trapped in your shadow for the rest of my life. People see me, they notice me and know my name and you are forgotten! Freedom comes in many shaped and forms Thor Odinsson! I am free of your shadow, now I walk in the light and there is nothing in this world you can do to drag me back into the darkness!"

"You are not a monster Loki…"Thor said gently "I'm going to take you home, because our mother cannot stand to lose her youngest child."

With that Thor turned on his heel and walked from the room heading for the labs, and for the first time he had rendered Loki speechless.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight – "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings."

On the second day of moving to Stark Tower Loki was treated to a dance routine by Tony at eight am, this time to a song called 'Bad Romance'. As the billionaire's backside wiggled its way out of the door and back down the corridor, Loki was already up and taking his change of clothes into the shower room.

Just like the morning before Loki was greeted by tea and toast in the serving hatch and Miss Pepper Pots and her clip board. Tapping a few glowing buttons on the glass the room fell into darkness as the glass tinted black as it had the morning before. Loki sat on the bed and turned to face the black glass.

Yesterday he had discovered what his punishment was to be. Once the window turned black it became a movie screen playing video clips and picture slides for two hours. He had tried to ignore it but when he opened his book he found that the light from the screen was too poor to read by and the noise was too loud for him to sleep through. The film yesterday had been mostly pictures and film clips of the funeral of a S.H.I.E.L.D agent.

Loki sat and watched as people cried for the man, his brother and the other Avengers where there at the front, the agents who had so delighted in his torcher back on the Hellicarrier, there were hundreds of people there beside the grave as the coffin was lowered. When the film clip had finished it showed a picture of the Agent and underneath was his name. Agent Phillip Coulson.

There were more pictures and scenes of destruction to follow occasionally with names and analogies written underneath. Today when the images started to flow over the screen he saw more of the same. Faces and names, clips of funerals and images of destruction and chaos, he watched them fly round the screen and knew his brain was filing them away at the back of his mind.

When the two hours was over the window became clear again and Loki watched Bruce Banner sip at a cup of coffee with a paper folded in his hand. He looked up at Loki and simply said "Good morning" as he turned to the door that lead out of the room.

"Good Morning." Loki answered before opening his book and starting to read. It took a few minutes before he realised when he had just said, but by that time Bruce had left the room and Loki was forced to sit and wonder what on earth had gotten into him.

~X~

"I hope that's decaf in that cup doc." Tony said peering into the scope at the segment of wire he had taken out of the original teleport machine. "The last thing I need is the Hulk finishing what the Heir of Slytherin up in that glass box started."

"The heir of what now?" Bruce gave the back of Tony's head a confused look and threw his paper on the side. "And yes it is Decaf."

"You never read Harry Potter? What have you been living under a rock these past few years?" Tony said half turning with a smirk. Bruce just raised an eyebrow and pulled on a lab coat, while Tony moved over to the speaker system and adjusted the volume control by hand. " I don't need the Hulk smashing he way around while the public clatter around the displays downstairs. Pepper worked hard on the Stark museum and I don't want her ripping me a new one. JARVIS playlist one please."

Music started thumping through the speakers as Tony smiled over at Bruce and got back his microscope. The first song on the playlist was 'Move's like Jagger' and Bruce couldn't help to laugh as he pulled another thicker wire out of the machine and started studying.

"Move's like Jagger my ass Stark." Tony simply started shaking his ass in response

~X~

"Come on Cap hit it harder! Like you mean it!" Thor yelled as he braced himself to combat the power of Steve's Fust smashing into the pad he held ready. The fist connected and he was forced to lean into it to stop himself from tumbling backwards a step or two. He smiled at his friend as the second fist landed with a dull thunk into the padding about 5 inches left of the first.

Steve stood upright and smirked. "I almost knocked you on your ass that time." He used one end of the towel round his neck to wipe the sweat from his forehead, "better watch yourself God."

Thor just laughed and smacked Steve playfully on the shoulder throwing the Captain a bottle of water as they both headed for the running machines. Climbing on they started to turn up the speed till they matched each other at an easy pace. As they ran Steve looked at his friend and poked one of his bulging biceps.

"So how did that talk with your brother go? If you want to tell me that is."

"I don't know." Thor admitted genuinely, "He mostly shouted at me again. Whenever I seem to speak to him he reverts back to the madness inside him, when I stay away he seems to be the same brother he was before his fall from Asgard, he blames me for everything that happened to him I am the catalyst for his pain."

"From what you told me about what happened, Loki seems like he resents you because you had much more respect than he did. When you were banished to earth everyone was hell bent on getting you back. He was king and still they disobeyed his orders to come and fetch you back. Tell me…apart from the time you started a war with the Frost giants had you ever disobeyed a direct order from your Father?" Steve asked.

"No my father is the king, the All Father." Thor said taking a swig of cold water.

"If your father had been awake would your friends have disobeyed and come to earth to get you?" Steve said.

"Well, they would have spoken to him beforehand.-"

"And if like Loki he had forbidden it?" Steve interrupted.

"No, I highly doubt that they would have disobeyed him." Thor admitted facing forward again and turning the speed up higher. Steve just smirked and did the same and left his friend to think over the point he had made feeling that silence was the better idea.

~X~

Lucius was lost. Looking round at the dark stair well he kept climbing looking for the next door to exist the stairwell, he could fell panic rising and he clutched his backpack tighter to his little chest. He saw a door and opened it, finding himself in a long corridor with doors all along each wall and one at the end.

The one at the end was open and seemed the most inviting, more so than the cold closed wood all around him. The closer he got to the door the more he heard soft music coming from inside, it sounded like classical music but he didn't have any idea what it was called.

Pushing open the door he poked his head round the frame and saw a man sitting on a bed reading a book and listening to the music coming from a computer. He had long black hair and was so absorbed in his book that Lucius sliding into the room went completely unnoticed.

By now Lucius had slid right up to the glass and titled his head. Maybe this was another display like the ones downstairs and he wasn't as lost as he thought he was from the tour group. He raised his small fist and knock on the glass that separated them.

~X~

Loki slowly turned his head at the knock on the glass expecting to see this blonde muscular older brother looking at him from the other side; however he was surprised to be greeted by the sight of a young boy. Black hair growing just below his ears in ringlet curls and over his forehead hanging in his eyes, green-blue eyes that looked at the god with interest and wonder, a black t-shirt almost completely covered by the red back pack he clutched to his chest like a lifejacket.

"Are you another display?" The child asked tilting his head and looking round Loki's small prison.

"I am most certainly not. Who are you and what are you doing here?" Loki said coldly putting his book down on the bed and standing, he walked over to the boy standing right next to the glass looking down on him arms clasped behind his back.

"I'm lost, I went to the toilet and the tour group left without me. My name is Lucius…w-what's yours?" The child looked up into Loki's piercing blue eyes and smiled a little.

Loki found this child intriguing. By all accounts he should be at least a little nervous of the tall looming man in front of him, even as he was now Loki thought he cut a rather imposing figure, but the boy just seemed interested in him.

"My name is Loki."

The boy's eyes widened with something like awe and he fished around in his back pack and pulled out a book. Loki just caught a flash of the title and smirked as the boy quickly leafed through the pages and found a painting entitled 'Loki'.

"You don't look very much like your picture…" the boy said with some scepticism looking from one to the other and back again. Loki couldn't help but laugh heartily at the boy's facial expression and crouched down so that he was closer to the boy's height.

"God's seldom look like the images mortal make of them. Let me see." Lucius turned the book around and pressed the pages against the glass to show Loki the painting. Cool blue eyes surveyed the image and shook his head, "I will never be that hideous. Where did you get this book?"

"At school, we are learning about ancient gods and goddesses." Lucius leaned forward conspiratorially "You're my favourite." He whispered to Loki's amazement. "I think your way better than all those other gods, like Baldr and Thor."

"Try telling them that." Loki muttered darkly

"Thor sounds just like my foster brother." Lucius said closing the book and slipping it into his bag. "He's just a big…muscle-head. Everyone loves him because he's on the football team and wins lots of trophies and things."

"You're a foster child?" Loki said tilting his head to the side and watching the boy's face as he nodded and started to explain.

"My mom was killed in a car crash and they took me away from my dad when I was three, they told me that he was mean to me but I don't remember. When I was four Mr and Mrs Markwise took me in, Mrs Markwise told me that I could call her Mom and that I could call Mr Markwise Dad."

"And do you?" Loki asked.

Lucius nodded hard and smiled a wide and happy smile, it was the expression of someone who was loved and for all his complaints about his brother, someone who was happy with his place in the world. Loki envied him for that.

"Mom said that family is family no matter what blood runs through your veins. I love them all very, very much even Tom, that's my big brother. I just wish they would notice me for what I do well." Lucius played with the sleeve of his t-shirt not looking at Loki.

"And what is your Talent Lucius Markwise?" Loki asked gently.

Digging in his bag again he pulled out a pad and flipped over the cover to show a drawing of a flower, an orchid no less captured in flawless beauty for the work of one so young and Loki smiled at the boy.

He saw so much of himself in this small boy, living with people he wasn't born to, feeling outshined by the birth child, but he saw in this boy also what he wished he could find inside himself. Why couldn't he be like Lucius?

"You are a very talented young man Lucius Markwise, Be proud of your own talents and I don't doubt that your family will notice you soon enough." Standing Loki turned and looked at one of the speaker in his room. "JARVIS?"

"Yes Sir?" came the English voice.

"I think you need to alert your superior…there is a lost child by my room, he needs taking back to his group." Loki said quietly.

~X~

Lucius was ushered out of the room by a kind but firm Pepper Pots as Tony berated his security staff over the phone for allowing a child to get past all his guards and walls and doors. He was not a happy playboy.

Pepper stop her ushering as Lucius asked her something, she seemed hocked by his request but nodded gently and lead him by the hand back over to Loki's cell. The god was sat on his bed reading again ignoring the scene on the other side of the glass.

"Goodbye Mr Loki. I want you to have this." He heard the serving hatch open and close and didn't turn to look at what it was until the room outside had gone quiet and emptied. Walking over to the hatch he picked up a slim piece of paper and looked at the drawing.

On the paper was a drawing of a family group, his family group Odin, Frigga, Thor and Loki and at the bottom was the title, written in the hand of a ten year old boy who had been so fascinated with The God of Mischief and his adventures. "Family."


	9. Chapter 9

*I'm sorry this chapter is both very late and very short. I'm afraid my life is a bit upside down at the moment but I promise I shall try to make more time to update as much as I can as often as I can.*

Chapter Nine – Smashing the Glass Barrier 

"Calm down Tony." Steve said trying to calm the billionaire raising his hand palms out in a peaceful gesture. Tony was in his office pacing up and down and continuing his rant even after his security team had left the room with their metaphorical tails between their legs.

"A child! A kid managed to get past all of my security and ended up alone with a megalomaniac having a nice cosy chat! Anything could have happened!" Tony yelled looking more animated than anyone had ever seen him. Throwing his hand in the air and spinning right round as he paced.

"The boy is safe at home nothing happened to him and he's safe. Just work on your security and everything will be back to normal, the worst didn't happen Tony just concentrate on stopping it from happening again." Bruce said calmly grabbing onto Tony's shoulders and holding him still while the man calmed back down to his normal composed self, very slowly.

Pepper came into the room just as all this was ending holding a DVD in her hand. She pressed the eject button on the player and popped in the disk pushing it a little so that it glided shut. Nobody said a word as she stepped back and they watched the security footage from the camera in the corner of the TV room.

They all watched as the two spoke together, listening to the conversation they had together and watching the way Loki interacted with the child. Thor watched as Loki smiled and laughed and acted like he used to as a child himself. It seemed that the boy and Loki had not only similar pasts but similar mind sets.

"I don't get it." Bruce said shaking his head and putting the stem of his glasses between his teeth. "He has the perfect opportunity to manipulate that boy into doing anything he wants. All that opportunity and he just talks with him, if he could manipulate anyone a child should be easy enough."

"I'm not sure that's strictly true. Anyway I'm more interested in what he said to Loki." Steve said.

~X~

Taking the picture that Lucius had left him Loki placed it inside his current book, 'Silence of the Lambs', to hold his place. He had to admit that he was enjoying the mental challenge of his book more than the challenges given to him in 'The Count of Monte Christo', yet the riddle that his current jailer had left him with was still running through his mind.

Edmund Dantes had been a man of goodness and simplicity before he was betrayed and thrown in prison by those he cared for, he was left to rot there and slowly over time his hatred grew and smouldered in his heart until it turned to nothing more than ash and dust in his chest. Loki could of course relate to that.

Betrayed by a man he thought was his father, lied to all his life by those he loved, Hatred had settled deep inside him and slowly boiled away the agony and pain. After he fell he could still see the look in his Odin's eye as he held Thor and himself dangling over the remnants of the Bifrost.

Disappointment and pity, and they had wounded Loki deeper than any weapon could have cut. The more tome he had to himself afterwards the more he listened to his own bile and venom, the more it began to fester in his mind, it had spread and spread like poison always does until there was barley anything left of who Loki once was.

Yes he had become just like Edmund Dantes, driven by nothing but hate filled revenge against anything and anyone that had caused him pain or frustration. Earth for its Jane Foster, whom his brother had fought so hard to save and earned his father's forgiveness, Thor for his boneheaded stupidity and his golden child status in the family, Odin for all the lies and betrayals of his trust, Asgard and all it's pathetic ideals to which he didn't fit and the disrespect they had shown his as their rightful king!

But it had been, it seemed, for nothing he has found no satisfaction in the small amount of destruction he had caused on this little planet, he had hurt Thor yes but there was no revenge there no destruction other than the physical and Asgard hadn't been affected in the slightest. He hadn't achieved his revenge, and now somehow he hadn't the taste for it.

When had he lost his drive? When had the sheer passion for vengeance against all the wrong done to him gone to? Landing on his bed he faced the glass into the TV room eyes looking but not seeing, mind working.

There was something right in front of him that he wasn't seeing, something obvious according to Stark that Edmund hadn't seen either when he had been trying to exact his revenge on the world. He knew he would just understand if Thor would stop getting in his way.

~X~

Thor sat in his room pondering as normal nowadays how to tackle the problem of his brother. He had asked for the security tape and Pepper had shown to them and had spent an hour watching it again and again looking for a way in, something that would help him get his brother back home where he belonged with the people that loved him.

The boy had spoken of his own family and the way he loved them even though they were not blood related, Thor had tried this approach already and it had failed spectacularly, he wondered if it was linked to the point about respect that Steve had made in the gym that day.

The young man had told Loki that he was his favourite god, what child didn't like the idea of a god made solely to make mischief among the others and have a little fun. He wondered if that boosted his brother's confidence a little. Maybe if Thor stopped telling Loki he was being stupid and started showing him that he had his love and respect things might go a little more smoothly between them.

But the thing was that while Loki was stuck in that room shut away from the world he was never going to get any kind of reform. Shutting him away from the world was only segregating him more form a world that if he was in his right mind he would more than likely enjoy being in.

Staring at his large calloused hands Thor thought his way through his newest idea. Nobody in Stark Tower was going to go for this without thinking he was completely insane. He considered carefully all the pro's and con's of his plan, slowly constructing a somewhat persuasive argument to get the others to go with his idea. He envied his brothers sharp and twisted mind at times, Loki and his silver tongue would have had no problem convincing them to do as he wanted.

~X~

Thor found everyone gathered in the TV room with the news playing while the third jug of coffee was being passed around the group. Steve looked up his smile vanishing at the stern look on his large friend's features. Loki was sitting on his bed his pale face looking the news channel watching the man drone on and on about something the Demi-god couldn't care less about.

"What's wrong, Thor?" Steve asked lowering his coffee cup. Every face now turned to Thor even that of his bored looking brother who simply leaned back against the headboard of his bed arms folded watching the broader Asgardian.

"We need to take Loki out into the City. No chain's, no mask just him and us." Thor said face set.


End file.
